I went down to a Toyota dealership here to test drive the Camry Hybrid. I was very curious how it would compare to a 'regular' Camry and how the whole Hybrid drivetrain worked. The dealership was pretty crappy (Servco Auto in Mapunapuna for those in Hawaii - maybe cuz I'm too young for them to pay attention to
). Anyway.. I didn't like it. The car felt really sluggish and I had the gas pedal haflway down before I would get up to 30 MPH. Because in lower speeds it was only the battery powering the car, you don't go anywhere unless your foot is on the gas. It's not like a regular car where you'll be going forward unless your foot is on the brake. I'm sure getting used to it would be easy enough but it makes me feel uneasy about manuevering in an emergency situation.
For the first time since I got my car early this year, I had a full car and lots of stuff in the trunk. I could tell the I4 was struggling.. I mean, I've packed 7 people into my mom's gen 3.5 V6 and you couldn't tell.. Even though my car was struggling a bit, it handled admirably. I don't doubt that it would still be very capable if I needed to accelerate in an emergency one bit.
Drove my friend's grandma's Avalon today with a full car (5 people) and dang, the 2GR is absolutely amazing. I can only imagine how much fun it must be in the Camry.. Only crappy part is that gas mileage isn't as good - but remarkably it's still better than my mom's 1MZ and the 2GR has more than 50% more power.
Anyway.. I'm still loving my gen 5.5 because it definitely has more head room. My friend is 5'7 and she said her head was nearly touching the roof in the Camry Hybrid's backseat. I can't wait to see how the gen 6.5 Camry looks..but by the time I'm in the market again, the gen 7 will probably be out
